• Mastering Change Management: How AI Drives Real-World Change and Strategic Alignment in Business Transformation
    Nov 25 2025
    Are you ready to unlock the transformative power of artificial intelligence for your business? Join host Sara Sheehan in this enlightening episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan as she engages with AI expert Dilip Dubey, who unveils the profound impacts AI can have on leadership excellence and organizational growth. This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the complexities of business transformation in a rapidly evolving landscape.Dilip challenges the common misconceptions that surround AI, asserting that it is not merely another disruptive technology but rather a fundamental shift that can redefine how businesses operate. There are two main applications for AI that he outlines: automation and innovation. How can AI improve automation and lead innovation? That’s the question every business leader needs the answer to in order to understand why AI is the key to their business optimization. With his extensive knowledge, he shares real-world change stories highlighting how AI enhances efficiency, drives innovation, and creates measurable business value across various industries. This conversation is an invaluable resource for leaders seeking to master change management and embrace innovative leadership strategies.Throughout their discussion, Dilip emphasizes the importance of adopting a proactive mindset towards AI. He advises leaders to initiate high-value, low-complexity projects that can quickly demonstrate tangible benefits. This approach not only fosters employee empowerment but also aligns with tailored change management training that can elevate your organization’s performance. As the conversation unfolds, Dilip addresses common fears regarding job displacement, illustrating how AI can augment human capabilities rather than replace them. This perspective is crucial for organizations aiming to thrive together in a competitive market.Case studies of companies that used AI to double EBITDA, focusing on ROB (return on business) instead of ROI, and assuring employees that AI augments but does not replace humans are themes that Dilip shares. He has witnessed and spearheaded the power of AI to drive business efficiency to greater success, and he shares his extensive knowledge with Sara and listeners in this episode.While Dilip notes that ethical use and bias prevention are critical themes in AI adoption, when designed responsibly it also has the power to correct systemic inequalities. Human governance will always be required to weed out existing bias. But with oversight intact, AI has the power to redefine entire business models and create new opportunities that don’t exist today. As the episode draws to a close, Dilip provides practical advice for leaders on fostering an AI-friendly culture and leveraging data effectively. He emphasizes that embracing AI as a strategic initiative is essential for remaining competitive and relevant. This episode is packed with insights that will resonate with CEOs, CHROs, and any stakeholders looking to enhance their leadership alignment and drive organizational change through innovative solutions.Don’t miss this opportunity to gain expert insights and actionable strategies that can transform your approach to AI and business transformation. Tune in to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan and discover how to lead your organization through the complexities of change management while maximizing the potential of artificial intelligence. Listen now to equip yourself with the knowledge and tools needed for effective executive development and strategy implementation. About Dilip Dubey: Dilip Dubey is a pioneer in artificial intelligence with a deep passion for understanding its promise and complexities. As a founder, CEO, patent-holding inventor, mentor, coach, and investor, he has created and scaled multiple AI companies, generating over $500 million in shareholder value. Dilip's work spans a wide range of sectors, driving transformation and delivering AI-driven value while making a meaningful impact on society. His involvement in initiatives such as Inventrepreneur.me reflects his commitment to using AI and innovation to eradicate poverty and foster gender equality. Dilip remains dedicated to leveraging AI as a powerful tool for business evolution and societal change. __Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:SaraWSheehan.comSara Sheehan on LinkedInMeet with SaraContact Dilip Dubey:Website: Dubey.aiLinkedIn: Dilip-Dubey-aiEmail: dilip@dubey.ai Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    49 mins
  • Mastering Change Management: Elevating Employee Engagement Through Respect and Innovative Leadership Strategies
    Nov 11 2025
    What if the secret to unlocking unparalleled employee engagement lies not in metrics, but in the profound simplicity of respect? Join host Sara Sheehan as she dives deep into this transformative idea with author John Guaspari in the latest episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. In his compelling book, "If Engagement is the What, Then Respect is the How," Guaspari challenges conventional wisdom, urging leaders to rethink their approach to workplace culture.Throughout this enlightening discussion, Guaspari reveals how respect serves as the bedrock of employee engagement and organizational success. Many leaders mistakenly prioritize quantifiable metrics over the essential intangibles that shape workplace dynamics. By emphasizing the interconnectedness of respect, trust, empowerment, and engagement, he illustrates why respect is the most crucial and controllable factor in fostering a thriving organizational culture.Are you aware of the common misconceptions that CEOs hold about respect and employee engagement? Guaspari sheds light on how miscommunication can erode trust and disrupt team dynamics, leading to a disengaged workforce. This episode is a must-listen for any leader seeking to enhance their team's morale, productivity, and employee satisfaction by genuinely considering others.Guaspari shares practical insights and real-world examples from his extensive experience in leadership development, demonstrating how even small changes in leadership behavior can yield significant improvements in employee satisfaction. Discover actionable strategies to cultivate a culture of respect, ensuring that engagement becomes an ongoing process rather than a mere checkbox activity.This episode serves as a powerful reminder that authentic engagement is built on a foundation of respect, trust, and empowerment. If you're a CEO or leader looking to navigate the complexities of workplace culture, tune in to gain valuable perspectives that can transform your organization.Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the industry's thought leaders. Engage with us, share your thoughts, and discover how you can apply these insights to your own organization. Join the conversation and transform your leadership approach today! About John Guaspari: Since the mid-1980s, John Guaspari has helped leaders increase the level of employee engagement throughout their organizations.John is the author of six previous books on the topic, including the best-selling "I Know It When I See It" and "The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery About the Compulsive Pursuit of the Next Big Thing". His writing credits also include seven training videos (one of which is the best-selling "Time: The Next Dimension of Quality") as well as hundreds of articles and columns for a broad range of business publications. His new business book is "If Engagement is the What, Then Respect is the How".John has worked with clients in scores of industries and has delivered over a thousand engagement-related presentations, seminars, and workshops for public and client-specific audiences alike. In the process, he has gained an enviable reputation for his ability to unravel complex subject matter and communicate it in the kind of accessible and engaging way that leads to real learning. Said another way, he knows how to be engaging about engagement.Long before entering the world of consulting, John began his professional career as an aerospace engineer, after which he went on to hold senior management positions in widely varying functions such as marketing, sales support, customer support, quality, organizational effectiveness, and leadership development.__Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:SaraWSheehan.comSara Sheehan on LinkedInMeet with SaraContact John Guaspari:Website: JohnGuaspari.comLinkedIn: John GuaspariNew Book: “If Engagement is the What, Then Respect is the How: Hard-Learned Lessons from Dealing with Those Pesky Intangibles, a.k.a. 'The Soft Stuff’” by John Guaspari__ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    45 mins
  • Empowering Innovation: Daniel Shulman on Cultivating a Culture of Creativity and Recognition in Organizations
    Oct 28 2025
    Are you ready to transform your organization's approach to innovation and intellectual property? Join host Sara Sheehan in this enlightening episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan, where she dives deep into the mind of Daniel Shulman, Intellectual Property (IP) Attorney at Vedder Price in Chicago, and a leading expert in intellectual property and innovation. Daniel is a former chief IP counsel for a large manufacturing company and also serves as an adjunct law school professor of legal writing. In a world where the pace of change is relentless, fostering a culture of innovation is no longer optional; it's essential for survival and growth. Shulman reveals that innovation should not just be a buzzword but a core value that permeates every level of corporate culture.Throughout their engaging conversation, Sara and Daniel explore the often-overlooked steps that leaders must take to empower their workforce and create an environment where innovative ideas flourish. Shulman emphasizes the importance of recognizing and supporting those who contribute to innovation, suggesting that organizations can leverage intellectual property not merely as a defensive tool, but as a powerful asset for competitive advantage. This shift in perspective can lead to groundbreaking solutions and significant business success.Listeners will gain practical strategies that can be implemented immediately, such as training employees on innovation methodologies, fostering open communication channels, and recognizing contributions to innovation—whether through formal programs or informal gestures of appreciation. Shulman advocates for a collaborative approach, highlighting the need for multidisciplinary teamwork to drive innovative solutions that can address complex challenges.This episode is packed with valuable insights for executives and leaders who are eager to cultivate a self-sustaining culture of innovation within their organizations. With a focus on humility and openness to new ideas, Shulman encourages leaders to step back and allow their teams to take the reins in the innovation process. The conversation serves as a crucial reminder that innovation is not a one-time effort but a continuous journey that requires commitment and vision.Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the foremost thinkers in the field of intellectual property and innovation. Tune in to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan and discover how you can transform your organization into a powerhouse of creativity and innovation. Your path to fostering a thriving culture of innovation starts here! About Daniel Shulman: Daniel Shulman is a Shareholder at Vedder Price and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property group in the Chicago office.Mr. Shulman’s practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property acquisition, monetization and enforcement, including complex patent litigation, trademark litigation, copyright litigation, trade secret litigation and all aspects of patent and trademark prosecution and portfolio management. Mr. Shulman also focuses on complex commercial matters, advertising disputes before courts and the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, products liability, antitrust matters and enforcement of restrictive covenants. Mr. Shulman brings over 12 years’ experience as Chief IP Counsel for multibillion-dollar companies holding thousands of worldwide patents and trademarks. While in-house, Mr. Shulman developed licensing strategies for the licensing in and out of next-generation technologies, managed due diligence processes for the acquisition and disposition of patents, and advised on litigation and defensive strategy relating to litigations. He managed an entire global patent and trademark portfolio for the North American operations of consumer products companies having over $12 billion in annual revenue while developing strategic technology areas to drive company innovation, directing innovation and patent filing and protecting their global patent portfolio through strategic interaction with foreign patent counsel. Mr. Shulman was named one of the Top Forty Lawyers Under 40 in Illinois in 2013 by the Law Bulletin, Managing IP Top In-House IP Star every year from 2015 through 2018, and received the First Chair Award Top In-House Intellectual Property Counsel in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Managing IP also recognized him as an “IP Star for Illinois” in the 2023 edition of individual practitioner IP Star rankings for Patents, Trademarks, Copyright, Designs and Transactions. He was also recognized in the 2024 edition of Managing IP’s List of IP stars as a Patent and Trademark star. Mr. Shulman was recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the Patent Law category for 2023 and 2024, Litigation – Intellectual Property in 2024 and Litigation – Patent in 2024. Additionally, he was ranked in all three of these categories in 2025 and 2026. Mr. Shulman was also named a Leading ...
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    48 mins
  • Building a Successful Workplace: Leadership Insights with Alykhan Jetha of Daylite.app
    Oct 14 2025

    In this episode of Transformational Thinkers, Sara Sheehan welcomes Alykhan Jetha (AJ), the CEO of Marketcircle and Daylite, to the show. Daylite is a software that works in the Apple ecosystem, a productivity CRM that Alykhan is expanding to include time tracking and invoicing for a holistic package. He talks with Sara about how he funded Marketcircle, his company’s growth trajectory, and his thoughts on the necessity of adapting to growth and change.

    Alykhan and Sara discuss why focusing on the employees and staff who are innovative and open to change is so important for company growth. Adaptability and malleability are important assets to cultivate. Alykhan shares insights from times when conventional leadership wisdom was at odds with his own insight as CEO, and how he followed his instincts for the benefit of the company. His experiences as a leader display versatile thinking and careful consideration of his team.

    Clarifying the why of what he’s doing is a key step for Alykhan in making sense of fast-moving business scenarios. Sara learns how he forms a strategic roadmap for his executives and staff, the way leaders need to think ahead to understand transformation, and how he assesses future mindsets like AI in relation to his company. Alykhan is clear about his personal beliefs and habits, the ones that ground him in his organizational style, and he explains how he guides his staff and himself away from burnout with support and clear communication.

    About Alykhan Jetha:

    Alykhan Jetha (AJ) is an entrepreneur, bootstrapper, underdog, and President & CEO of Marketcircle, the company behind Daylite, an award-winning Mac CRM empowering small business owners, entrepreneurs & bootstrapping builders across the globe.

    Alykhan was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (called Zaire back then) – and his family was expelled for being of East Indian descent. They left their home and spent time in Brussels before coming to Canada with nothing but the clothing on their backs.

    Alykhan studied computer hardware in college and found a love for programming. He founded Marketcircle, a software company developing award-winning business apps for the Mac, iPhone & iPad, after thousands of hours working late into the night. He built the original company as a dotcom, but by the time he had drawn the attention of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capital firms, the dotcom bubble had burst. He pivoted – and eventually became the SaaS product they are today.

    He is humbled to have been featured in the Financial Post, Globe & Mail, Yahoo! Finance, and numerous Mac-industry media outlets. He is passionate about lean entrepreneurship and process-driven startup growth. For Alykhan, the “9 to 5” is an artificial construct.

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    Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

    • SaraWSheehan.com
    • Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
    • Meet with Sara

    Contact Alykhan Jetha:

    • Website: daylite.app
    • LinkedIn: AlykhanJetha
    • Instagram: @marketcircle

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    54 mins
  • Unlocking Gen AI Superpowers: Leadership and Talent Optimization in Business
    Sep 30 2025

    In this episode of Transformational Thinkers, Sara Sheehan welcomes Balki Kodarapu, a fractional CTO, Gen AI advisor, and SaaS scale-up expert. Balki shares how he helps startups grow from $100K to $40M ARR, avoid the “feature factory” trap, and build outcome-driven engineering teams. His specialty is creating clarity out of chaos—turning bottlenecks, missed deadlines, and organizational confusion into scalable systems and high-performing teams. He explains his strategies and insights to Sara.

    Balki reveals why every startup needs a clear engineering roadmap, how to use OKRs and scorecards effectively, and why focus is the most underappreciated growth lever. Balki also discusses modern hiring practices and breaks down how his four pillars of engineering excellence - modular architecture, automated testing, compliance, and observability - help teams create the necessary focus on the right things.

    To shift teams from a “feature factory” mindset, Balki encourages leaders to focus on impact rather than just outputs. Balki shares his leadership philosophy: first building trust with teams by working alongside them and even shipping code himself as a CTO. He sees the fractional CTO role growing in importance and advises founders to seek leaders with both hands-on technical depth and strategic understanding across multiple company stages. This episode shines a light on how to effectively lead through change.

    About Balki Kodarapu:

    Balki Kodarapu is a fractional CTO who helps SaaS and GenAI startups scale from $100k to $50M ARR—without burning through budgets or momentum. He has led six startups through hyper-growth, raised over $160M, delivered multiple exits, and built GenAI products that power pharmacists, care navigators, and Fortune 100 tech-support teams.

    Balki specialize in stepping into chaos—engineering bottlenecks, missed ship dates, org confusion—and turning it into clarity, velocity, and meaningful business results. Over the past 9 years, he’s led engineering at six companies (including two successful exits), often wearing every hat: hands-on EM, coach of other engineering leaders, and strategic Head of Engineering.

    He has a relentless focus on developer effectiveness and scalable systems, plus a firm belief that high-performance starts with human performance. He pushes every team he works with to carve out 15+ hours/week for learning, reflection, and growth. He wakes up excited about what mission-focused engineering teams can create with the right clarity, culture, and autonomy.

    Outside of work, Balki mentors engineers, engineering leaders, youth nonprofits, jokes around with his golden retriever Finn, and devours an unreasonable number of podcasts and books. If you care about building better teams, scaling smarter, or surviving the startup trenches— he has stories, scars, and context-rich lessons to share.

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    Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

    • SaraWSheehan.com
    • Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
    • Meet with Sara

    Contact Balki Kodarapu:

    • Website: YourCTOin.us
    • LinkedIn: Balki

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    55 mins
  • Unlocking Growth Mindset: Eduardo Briceño's Insights on Performance and Learning
    Sep 16 2025

    In this episode of Transformational Thinkers, Sara Sheehan welcomes Eduardo Briceño, a keynote speaker, behavior change partner, and co-founder and CEO of Mindset Works, to the show to discuss the performance paradox. Eduardo explains this as being so focused on performance that we lose sight of learning and asking questions about what makes our performance effective. He discusses his book “The Performance Paradox” and the differences between the learning zone and performance zone with Sara.

    Great performers, according to Eduardo, give the best performance they can on stage, but behind the curtains, they are doing hours of experimenting, trying new strategies, soliciting feedback, and learning. Performance without integration of learning leads to stagnation. Eduardo’s TED Talk “How to Get Better at the Things You Care About” highlights the need to alternate between the learning and performance zones for true improvement.

    Sara’s conversation with Eduardo explores many of his teachings and strategies, including creating a safe space to experiment, the value of not just preaching continuous improvement, but creating an authentic learning culture, and why there is a need to reframe mistakes and errors into essential progress steps. Eduardo uses many examples of devoted high performers like Beyonce to illustrate the benefits of re-watching one’s performance to learn from it, and explains why learning and performing are not opposing forces but ones that should be integrated. This episode will change the way we view growth and mindset as related to our performance output.

    About Eduardo Briceño:

    Eduardo Briceño is a keynote speaker, facilitator, and behavior change partner who guides many of the world’s leading companies in developing cultures of continuous improvement, innovation, and high performance. His TED talk, “How To Get Better At The Things You Care About,” and his TEDx talk, “The Power of Belief,” have been viewed more than ten million times. His book, The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action, won multiple awards. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Big Think, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., Quartz, and others.

    Earlier in his career, Eduardo was the co-founder and CEO of Mindset Works, the pioneer in growth mindset development services, which he started with Stanford professor Carol Dweck and which he led for over a decade. Prior to that, he was a venture capital investor with the Sprout Group and served on several for-profit and non-profit boards. Before that, he was an investment banking analyst with Credit Suisse. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow, a member of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network, and an inductee in the Happiness Hall of Fame.

    Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Eduardo holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA and M.A. in education from Stanford University. Most importantly, he continues to enjoy lifelong learning every day.

    Resources discussed in this episode:

    • “The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset Into Action” by Eduardo Briceño

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    Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

    • SaraWSheehan.com
    • Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
    • Meet with Sara

    Contact Eduardo Briceño

    • Website: briceno.com
    • LinkedIn: eduardo-briceno

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    50 mins
  • Unlocking Explosive Growth: Lessons in Talent Development and Revenue Transformation with Mark Gordon
    Sep 2 2025

    Sara Sheehan welcomes guest Mark Gordon, Founder and CEO of Integrated Go-To-Market Solutions, to the show for a conversation about blending psychology into scaling companies and how he positively re-energizes relationships with clients. Through his company, IGTMS, Mark helps startups and mid-market companies align scattered sales into one revenue-generating machine. He talks with Sara about his career journey, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and how lessons learned from playing rugby have stayed with him.

    What motivates people is a foundational interest of Mark’s, and that fascination with people and his college psychology major drove Mark to the philosophies that guide his company today. How can we create a place where people will do the best work they’ve ever done? Mark pulled lessons from sports and from business school in addition to psychology to answer that question. People are generally trying their best, which is a belief Mark uses in his coaching techniques. Finding people who want to get better every day and creating an environment where they can do their best is the essence of his principles.

    Mark’s history with rugby has informed his life in and out of work, and he shares stories that illustrate some of the lessons learned. Sports teams teach us to understand leadership, according to Mark, and people’s trust in the aptitude of their leader is what compels them to follow. Sara finds out which books inspire Mark, his thoughts on entrepreneurship, and client success stories that illustrate how he achieves significant results. He shares his Core Four foundational views and how he guides salespeople to greater revenue in this compelling episode about motivation and successful business scaling.

    About Mark D. Gordon:

    Mark Gordon is a veteran sales coach, growth strategist, and founder of Integrated Go-To-Market Solutions (IGTMS). Known for blending psychology with practical GTM strategies, Mark has helped thousands of sales professionals and scaled multiple companies into eight-figure successes. He specializes in cutting through misalignment to build high-performing, revenue-driving systems for B2B founders.

    Resources discussed in this episode:

    • Jim Collins books
    • “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” by Angela Duckworth

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    Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

    • SaraWSheehan.com
    • Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
    • Meet with Sara

    Contact Mark Gordon

    • Website: igtms.com
    • LinkedIn: MarkDouglasGordon
    • Instagram: @MarkDGordon

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    57 mins
  • How Talent Corner Grew 20X: Lessons in Franchising and Expansion from Rashesh Doshi
    Aug 19 2025

    Sara Sheehan welcomes guest Rashesh Doshi, Managing Director of Talent Corner, to the podcast to explore his HR business and the fantastic growth his business has experienced. Rashesh details the growth in numbers and explains how their franchise partners add to the growth and are supported. They also discuss how the Stanford Seed Transformation Program is positively impacting Talent Corner as a team and Rashesh personally. It’s due to this reinvigoration that Rashesh is looking to expand Talent Corner out of India into nine other markets with the assistance of Stanford. Sara finds out part of the scaling plan for such an aspirational goal and talks about many of Rashesh’s guiding principles.

    The franchise partners Talent Corner that brings in are welcomed into a robust training program, and are supported by a 27-member in-house team. Rashesh further explains that franchise partners are focused on servicing, not generating new business, so they are taking care of existing clients, which has helped the company’s growth in referrals. The Stanford Seed Transformation Program is also a key part of Rashesh’s scaling strategy, as their support has added to the team’s understanding of their company’s capabilities and is supporting the goal of expanding into nine new areas.

    Sara discusses Rashesh’s transformation plan for balancing the company’s scaling goal with caring for partners and employees, and Rashesh stresses that the entire team has a part in the journey; it isn’t just him leading from the front. As he moves into this new chapter, Rashesh says he’s been learning to listen better and how that’s incorporated into the coaching within the company. His passion for networking has been a key motivator for his success as well, and the sharing of insights is something he cherishes.

    About Rashesh Doshi:

    He joined the company in 2004 and expanded the recruitment and business development teams. He came up with a Franchise Model which is extremely strong & effective. Today, Talent Corner is one of the Companies which has run the franchise business expansion plan for many years & has brought loads of success to its partners and to Talent Corner.

    He is focused on being responsible for the strategic growth of the company.

    He believes in the Philosophy of “Plan More, Think Longer & Once Decided Act Fast”.

    Rashesh is a Member of BNI (Business Networking International), Round Table India and Mr. Harsh Mariwala’s (Marico Industries) PSR Project – Ascent.

    Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

    • SaraWSheehan.com
    • Sara Sheehan on LinkedIn
    • Meet with Sara

    Contact Rashesh Doshi

    • Website: TalentCorner.in
    • LinkedIn: RasheshDoshi
    • YouTube: @TalentCorner

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    27 mins